The Dying Lion, a stone panel from the North Palace of
Ashurbanipal

Nineveh, northern Iraq
Neo-Assyrian, around 645 BC

The triumph of the Assyrian king over nature

This small alabaster panel was part of a series of wall panels
that showed a royal hunt. It has long been acclaimed as a
masterpiece; the skill of the Assyrian artist in the observation
and realistic portrayal of the animal is clear.

Struck by one of the king's arrows, blood gushes from the lion's
mouth. Veins stand out on its face. From a modern viewpoint, it is
tempting to think that the artist sympathized with the dying
animal. However, lions were regarded as symbolizing everything that
was hostile to urban civilization and it is more probable that the
viewer was meant to laugh, not cry.

There was a very long tradition of royal lion hunts in
Mesopotamia, with similar scenes known from the late fourth
millennium BC. The connection between kingship and lions was
probably brought to western Europe as a result of the crusades in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries AD, when lions begin to
decorate royal coats of arms.